In the fields of mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, etc. equipment it is a universal practice to assemble component parts with threaded fasteners, the most familiar and commonly used ones being nuts and bolts. During initial assembly these fasteners must be tightened, and later must sometimes be loosened or removed in order to effect repairs and/or install new parts. It is axiomatic that speed in the turning of threaded fasteners is desirable because this saves time and thus money. To this end "speed wrenches", both powered and manual, providing continuous or progressive stepped rotation of fasteners have been developed and are widely marketed. In the manual category there are two basic types, designated as ratcheting box wrenches and socket ratchet wrenches. Both employ full-circle or closed socket gripping members which completely surround the periphery of a fastener, which may be a nut or a bolthead, and which most commonly are hexagonal.
There are frequent situations where either a space limitation or the presence of a tubular line, pipe or cable projecting through the center of a nut makes it impossible to apply a closed socket tool, and an open-end wrench must perforce be used. If it is a simple one-piece tool the user must remove and reapply it many times before the turning is completed, and where there is little room for movement of the handle it is often necessary to flip the wrench over between successive applications. This is a time-consuming, unwelcome and uneconomic task.
It is thus apparent that a need should exist for a ratcheting or continuously rotatable wrench which is the open-end counterpart to a conventional ratcheting box wrench or socket ratchet wrench. For maximum utility it should be as compact as possible, preferably not larger than its closed socket equivalent. To be commercially successful it must be capable of being manufactured at relatively low cost, and must be reliable in operation, as well as durable. A necessary feature, if the wrench is to be used on flare nuts and the like, is some means whereby upon completion of the turning action the socket member can be easily rotated to its open position, thereby allowing the tool to be removed from the work piece.
While open-end ratchet-type wrenches are generally known in the prior art, non are known to have met with any significant commercial success since they all suffer from one or another or combination of various drawbacks related to size, durability, complexity, ease of use or manufacturing cost. These drawbacks exist because of their universal use of traditional ratchet mechanisms utilizing pawls, pivot pins, springs and teeth, which always operate in the main X-Y or rotating plane of the wrench.
It is accordingly a principal object of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art by providing a novel two-way, open-end, continuously rotatable ratchet-type manual wrench in which the torque-transmitting elements are fewer, simpler and stronger, and which operate in the Z or transverse plane. Thus, the various disadvantages of prior mechanisms are avoided while attaining the necessary and desirable features enumerated above. A further advantage of the invention is that at only slight additional cost the wrench can be made double-ended, so as to accommodate two different sizes of fasteners. Still another advantage is that is can be used as a universal driving handle into which variously sized split inserts or sockets can be placed, thus making the tool the open-end equivalent of a conventional socket ratchet wrench.
Other objects of the present invention are to provide an open-end manual wrench which allows for easy and rapid rotation of threaded fasteners, provides two-way action, is inexpensive to manufacture, is inherently strong and durable, contains a minimum number of parts, provides means for easily moving the socket member to its open position, can be produced in double-ended, two-size versions and can be used as a universal driving handle with variously sized open-size socket inserts.
The above and other features, objects and advantages of the invention will become more apparent from the following description and claims in connection with the accompanying drawings to be described hereinafter.